ReLife Player

[Changing Futures (5)]

«…Huh?»

Mana began to rise from the bottom of the river.

The surface of the water, which had been calm just a moment ago, was turbulent as if it had been a lie.

An aura of mana that enveloped the entire area.

Euna had only ever thought of mana as a mysterious force. She’d always thought of it as a mysterious force, but when she manipulated it the way Eunha had taught her, she felt refreshed, and her body felt light. And it was indescribably gratifying to see her fantasies come to life.

But the mana that now floated through the air was completely different from the mana she had known.

It was terror. The more she sensed it gathering, the harder it was to breathe, and it felt like something was weighing down on her shoulders.

For the first time, she realized that true terror didn’t even come in the form of a scream.

There was no foreshadowing.

As if it had been there all along.

The monster was right in front of her.

«Aaah….»

She wondered if it was an illusion to feel like she was making eye contact.

She couldn’t easily deny it.

It was too eerie a sensation to dismiss as an illusion.

Euna hugged herself with her arms. Even with her eyes closed, she could see the monster’s eyes. She had a feeling that if she opened her eyes, it would be looking at her right now.

«It’s okay.»

«…Eunha….»

Strangely enough, Eunha put her hand on his head and her fear disappeared.

I’m the big sister, I shouldn’t be scared!

A big sister should protect her little brother. Euna remembered her mother’s words when Eunha was first born.

To her, Eunha was a precious younger sibling.

He had been a dull child since birth. At first, she didn’t know what was wrong with him, and she felt so bad that he didn’t respond to her no matter how much she touched him.

But it didn’t take long to realize that Eunha wasn’t a bad kid. She realized that her brother was always looking at the family and listening to what she had to say.

The mute brother was just a less responsive child than the others.

Euna wanted to see him respond, even just a little bit, so she clung to him every chance she got, telling him about all the things she’d enjoyed during the day. She even took his hand and led him to the playground to give him a friend.

Gradually, Euna could see a change in Eunha. As the days went by, her little brother began to accept the people around him and enjoy every day.

But this time, for some reason, Eunha was stubborn. When her brother brought up the idea of not going to visit their grandmother, it seemed like he was afraid of something.

Euna didn’t know what Eunha was hiding, but she could only vaguely recognize that her brother had been scared and anxious about something ever since.

It’s okay, I’ll protect you!

I promised myself then. I will protect my dear little brother.

I mean, that’s what I said…!

«Eunha!!!»

The bridge was covered in explosions and commotion.

I called out to my younger brother, who was running towards the monsters that were blatantly showing their flesh.

I don’t know why. I couldn’t figure out why.

Something was warning her intensely.

That if they let him go, they’d never see him again.

Euna knows how strong Eunha is. She knew her brother could beat their father if he set his mind to it, and she knew he could take down even the most famous celebrities.

But still, still…!

Something in her gut kept screaming at her.

No matter how strong his brother was, he would not be able to defeat the monster in the distance.

«No!!! N-no!!! Please!!!»

So don’t go! Come back!

Euna struggled to get out of her father’s arms. He held her tightly, but she struggled, reaching out in the direction Eunha had disappeared.

«Daddy, Eunha, Eunha…!»

«Daddy will get Eunha, so, you wait here with mommy»

«…Okay!»

Dad set Euna down on the floor. Bending down to make eye contact with her, he placed his hand on top of her head.

Warmth radiated from his eyes.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

«Shouldn’t you be listening to your mom?»

«Dad, where do you think you’re going? Dad, you can’t go there!»

I couldn’t help but notice. He was about to pick up Eunha and run in the direction of the monster.

He had to if he wanted to save him.

Euna knew that, but she couldn’t let him go.

Something is calling to her.

If she sent the two of them off like this-.

«…Dad!!!»

Dad runs in the direction where his younger brother disappeared. Unable to control his mana, he was crossing the bridge with a precarious gait. Again and again, mana escaped from his body, and he lost his balance and fell.

No, he can’t go.

Euna shook her head.

Then her mother held out her hand. Her mother was pulling her toward a dense area of players.

«Daddy will protect Eunha, and if you run over there, it will make it harder for him, don’t you understand?»

Sensing Euna’s hesitation, her mother spoke softly.

Euna couldn’t help but nod. Her head understood what her mother was saying, but her heart was still pounding.

«Euna, let’s go.»

«…No. No.»

Yes, no.

It was as if her thumping heart was telling her.

If I let them go, I’ll regret it.

If I give up now, I’ll spend the rest of my life in tears. For herself, and for her mother.

«Euna?»

«You go ahead, Mom. I’ll get Dad and Eunha.»

She decided to do as her heart told her, and strangely enough, her anxiety disappeared.

«Hooo»

She took a deep breath and let it all out. Slapping her cheeks with both hands, Euna gave her mother the brightest smile she could muster.

«Euna!»

Her mother couldn’t catch Euna, who had enhanced her physical abilities with mana. She had learned from Eunha how to use mana efficiently, and she was more balanced than her father, who had run ahead of her.

Nothing stood in her way. Finding her way was easy for a girl who had played cops and thieves, ice skating and hide-and-seek since she was a child.

She released the mana she had stored in the soles of her feet and leaped like a spring over the rubble that seemed to be beyond her leaping ability.

«One, two!»

It took a moment for the people to see the tiny dots.

I didn’t feel the slightest bit afraid that my feet weren’t attached to the ground. Her body was simply calculating and distributing her mana as she landed on the railroad bridge.

«Euna? Why are you here….»

«Dad, I’ll get Eunha!»

It didn’t take long for Euna to run past her father.

He had forgotten to run and was staring in disbelief at her sudden descent from the sky.

Regardless, Euna didn’t pause and started moving her feet as soon as she landed.

«No Euna-! Stop!»

Her father called after her.

Even the sound of his voice was quickly distant. Without the slightest hesitation, she ran the remaining distance with all her might.

It wasn’t hard to find him through the explosions and storm.

He was fighting a monster, and where there were explosions and storms, there he was .

In a world covered in dust, Eunha’s skills were nothing short of amazing. Even to Euna, who had only learned to sense mana and enhance her physical abilities, it was a wonder to see him struggle.

But that was that, and this was this.

In her eyes, she could clearly see him losing ground to the monster.

The fear of the monster still lingered in her chest. If she stepped into its line of sight, if she even made eye contact, she would freeze in place.

«Eunha!»

Still, I ran. With all my might.

Throwing all hesitation out the window.

Because he’s flying through the air.

The creature was so focused on getting away that it took advantage of Eunha’s moment of weakness to strike.

«Boom!»

The sound of Eunha clicking his tongue could be heard up close. The younger brother, who had no strength left, tried to block the flying body with the intention of dying.

But Eunha managed to split the body. It was impossible, but he did it. He had survived until then with a pair of scissors in his hand that were no longer recognizable.

The surprise seemed to have taken the monster by surprise as well.

For a moment, it faltered.

But the monster was a monster. For a moment, it thought it had been pushed back, but it couldn’t forgive itself for that, and it lost its temper and began flailing its ten legs.

«No-!»

If he could stop it once, he couldn’t do it twice.

The younger brother was already lying on the ground, unable to get up. It was a surprising thing that he hadn’t lost consciousness yet.

A little more, a little faster!

She whipped her legs, but they wouldn’t budge. It was the result of foolishly expending all her mana. Her emotions had reached their limit, causing her mana to go berserk.

Still, Euna somehow managed to move her legs. Even if her throat burned with every breath, even if her arms felt like they would snap back, even if her body screamed, she didn’t give up.

It doesn’t hurt at all, so just a little faster, faster, faster!

She screamed desperately.

She hoped.

She prayed.

She longed.

She made a wish.

If the process of turning a concrete imagination into reality is called magic, then even this heart prayed desperately for power, hoping it would become magic and grant her strength.

And then the world─.

─Huh?

Do you want power?

The wind stopped.

The sound disappeared.

Time stood still.

─The world was dyed white.

Do you want power?

A voice that seemed neither male nor female.

She didn’t mishear. The voice was clearly ringing out in a world where no one was present.

What do you wish for?

She wasn’t curious about the nature of the ringing sound.

Instinctively. No, on a level beyond instinct. Her reason and emotion were both accepting its existence as a matter of course.

What do you wish for?

It’s asking for something obvious.

There’s only one thing.

There is only one.

Euna called out to the white-washed world.

«My litle brother, don’t hurt him──!»

Power overflowed from her chest.

The more the world cracked, the more the boiling power pulsed, as if it were trying to break through the shell it was in.

Eventually, the world shattered into tiny fragments.

Undeterred by the unreal scene before her, Euna ran toward Eunha.

It was an unfamiliar yet familiar sensation.

The explosion of mana reacted as her emotions desired. The pain that had covered her body a moment ago vanished as if it had been a lie, and her body recovered.

From there, she took off running.

Having broken through the world like a fixer, she was determined to protect her one and only little brother.

Just before the monster pronounced her death sentence, Euna pulled her brother into her arms to protect the only one she had.

With her power overflowing, she feared nothing.

Mana rebuilt the world as she wished.

☆

<Miracle>. It is a phenomenon that calls for the reconstruction of the world by manipulating the principles of the world, and it is a gift.

Eunha once witnessed a player who was pushed to the limit in the life and death situation displaying <Miracle> and reconstructing the world.

Shin Seo-young, a member of the Twelve Thrones and also known as the <Empress>, created dozens of storms and defeated monsters that came rushing from all directions.

Ilya, known as the <Saint of the Sect>, restored all the dying people in the entire northern region.

Shin Do-rim, who made people tremble in fear of the <King of Darkness>, brought back to life even the dead and destroyed the Yeongdeungpo area.

Eunha had experienced unbelievable things becoming a reality many times.

That didn’t mean that people would just start possessing the Gift of Miracles.

<The Miracle Gift, like the White Silver Gift, was extremely rare in the world.

Moreover, unlike the Gift of White Silver, the Gift of Miracles could not be identified until after the world had been reconstructed.

In the end, by the time he died, there were only four people he knew who had the Gift of Miracles.

All of them were players whose skills were considered to be among the best of their time.

As a result, until his dying moments, Eunha was aware of only four people who possessed the gift of <Miracle>.

Among them was also his partner, Lee Yoo-jung, whom he entrusted with his back.

<The Dungeon of the Abyss> was one of the eight black dungeons that humanity had given up on and was the only black dungeon in Korea.

The dungeon’s…

Facing death at the end of the dungeon, Eunha experienced a miracle caused by Lee Yoo-jung. Thinking that she might possess the gift of miracles, he never expected to be the recipient of one.

The miracle she caused was beyond anything he had ever witnessed before.

It was the reconstruction of the world.

<From the miracle, he gained a second life, which he named regression.

So he wouldn’t be surprised if Euna performed a fifth miracle.

He thought that Euna might possess the gift .

She’d had a ridiculous amount of mana since she was a child, so he had reason to think so.

That wasn’t the problem.

«It’s okay, it’s okay.»

Euna soothed Eunha. He noticed that the light that spread around her was healing his wounds.

The flash did more than protect them, it healed their wounds.

Everything that came in contact with it was annihilated, except for the two of them.

The diver who jumped into the water, the monster chasing Eunha, and the Kraken’s arms that were about to strike the two of them could not resist and disappeared.

«Noona, are you hurt anywhere?»

The more Eunha asked, the more he worried about her. Swallowing dryly, he checked her body for any changes.

Everything had a price. So far, no one with the Gift of Miracles had gotten away unscathed after rebuilding the world.

For example, the Empress Shin Seo-yeong could no longer return as a player after controlling natural disasters and destroying monsters.

For example, the Saint of the Cult, Iliya, became an indescribable entity and died after accepting the pain of those she healed.

For example, the King of the Dead, Shin Do-rim, became the king of those who died with the same name and lost his memory as a price for resurrecting the dead.

The miracle that Euna had caused was not as grandiose as the miracles he had witnessed before, but Euna was unable to move at the moment.

«I’m not hurt anywhere. Eunha, what about you? Hmm? …Huh? I’m so sleepy, but I can’t sleep….»

The pillar that had pierced the sky was narrowing. Eventually, it shrank to a single beam of light and disappeared.

«…Sleep well.»

«I shouldn’t be sleeping…. We need to get out of here, fast.»

«It’s okay, the next time you open your eyes, it’ll be over.»

The price Euna paid was mana.

Eunha was relieved to see that only a tiny amount of mana remained, just enough to keep her heart beating.

«Thanks, sis.»

Thank you for protecting me again.

Thank you for saving me again.

And thank you for keeping me alive.

Muttering inaudibly, Eunha pressed his lips to Euna’s cheek.

«Hehe…. Eunha kissed me…everything….»

Pulling her lips up, Euna finally closed her eyes, unable to catch the fading consciousness.

«Good night, sis. I’ll see you later─,»

The most important person in this world.

Eunha pulled Euna into a hug, not wanting to lose her again.

«─I’ll take care of it.»

There was no one there now.

So Eunha released her suppressed life force.

The Kraken looked down at the two of them. Its eyes, which had so far shown boredom, curiosity, and surprise, were now alert.

It had good reason to be, now that it was facing the horrors of annihilation with its eyes open.

At the same time, it had its sights set on Euna, who held a vast amount of mana.

«What are you looking at?»

Eunha didn’t like the way he looked at her.

Ready to kill at a moment’s notice, he released his restored mana.

There was nothing to fear anymore.

The future had changed.

He had overcome his fate.

So Eunha sharpened the released mana into sharp blades. Dozens of blades were pointed at him, all at once.

If he touched a single hair of her head, I’d kill him.

In his current state, he couldn’t bring the Kraken down.

He couldn’t defeat it, but time was now on his side.

«──Why is this thing ignoring me?»

Flames ignited.